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Storm Q costs Shawnee County more than $40K

Other figures relating to cost of Storm Q, Rocky pending

Storm Q, which hit Topeka on Feb. 21 and 22 with 9.9 inches of snow, cost the Shawnee County’s public works department nearly $40,000.

Shawnee County road and bridge crews accumulated $15,499.61 in overtime responding to the storm, said director Tom Vlach. Treating the roads those two days consumed another $24,188 for fuel and salt/sand mix. That comes to $39,688 above and beyond the department’s normal day-to-day operational costs for the storm, he said.

Vlach said the figures — both in the amount of snow and overtime costs — made Thursday’s snow event “more than your average storm.”

“Compared to other storms, it’s probably bigger than an average storm, but certainly not near some of our worst,” he said.

Vlach said the road and bridge departments have about $125,000 budgeted in overtime, so the county has plenty of funds to cover the cost of the storm.

But those figures don’t scratch the surface of total cost to Topeka and Shawnee County when it comes to Storm Q.

Emergency management director Dave Sterbenz still is waiting for cost figures from various public offices, such as school and fire districts. For the storm to be declared a disaster — to qualify for federal and state funds — the storm had to have cost the county $613,872, he said.

“I doubt if we’re going to get that threshold,” Sterbenz said.

He expected the figures to be in by Thursday.

The City of Topeka wasn’t able to compile the data during the past week.

Storm Q dumped as much as 20 inches of snow in some parts of the state. The following week’s storm, dubbed Rocky, covered areas of the state with a second round of snowfall, some Kansas counties reporting up to 12 inches.

The state’s response to the two storms is estimated to exceed $6 million, according to a fact sheet from the Kansas Department of Transportation. That averages to $2.25 per registered Kansas vehicle for both storms.

The cost reflects several factors, including the 575 KDOT trucks, 504,000 miles that were pretreated and plowed and the 50,000 hours logged during Storm Q by about 1,200 KDOT employees. The state used 22,000 tons of salt/sand mix and 850,000 gallons of brine for pre-treatment just for the Feb. 21 storm.

The figures could go higher, the sheet notes, because crews still are working the storm that hit the state Monday and Tuesday.